Facing the facts on that local tax

First, the correspondent asks about the revenue from Council Tax from "all the new estates that are being built all over Bolton". Council Tax only forms about a quarter of the Council's income (the rest comes from the Government and from business rates), and any increase in income from increased numbers of Council Taxpayers is compensated for by the Government in its grant to the Council. The Council does not directly benefit, therefore, from any increase in the number of Council taxpayers in the Borough. Indeed insofar as new houses tend to be bought by families with children in the educational system they can be a positive (though thoroughly justified) drain on the Council's finances.

Second, I note that the correspondent talks about the Council "building houses on top of Winter Hill if it could".

Most readers will know that Mrs Thatcher stopped councils from building houses many years ago, but if your correspondent is referring to the Council giving permission for house building, I would remind readers that we are currently defending our policy at public inquiry to prevent new housing development on greenfields at Bowlands Hey, Westhoughton; at Lee Hall, Westhoughton; at Ditcher's Farm, Westhoughton; at the Hollins area, Harper Green; and at various other open land sites across the Borough.

Developers and landowners would like these sites built on, but the Council says no. Rather, most new development should go to the existing built-up area and to previously-developed land in particular (although as we've seen in recent correspondence in the BEN, this can have problems of its own).

About a half of the land area of the Borough is protected by the UDPs Green Belt and other open land policies, and the Plan also contains policies that protect playing field and urban open spaces.

Councillor G Harkin

Executive Member

for Environment

and Economic Development

Bolton Metro